


When the Moon reaches for the Stars.

by the-canary (siruru)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Awkward Crush, Biker Bucky Barnes, Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, F/M, Feelings Realization, Light Angst, Living Together, Love Confessions, Love at First Sight, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Reader-Insert, Strangers to Lovers, Time Skips, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-09
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-08-21 07:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16572374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siruru/pseuds/the-canary
Summary: You’re both stars the other can’t seem to catch.





	When the Moon reaches for the Stars.

**Author's Note:**

> This is for @realbucky‘s October Challenge. I got the new Elle King CD and I feel in love with most of the songs, so it was inspired by a mix of that. It changed a lot along the way! I am sorry it took so long, but maybe you’ll enjoy it! 
> 
> Prompt: “a surety rose in me, lodged in my throat. i will never leave him. it will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.”
> 
> Feedback is always welcomed.

It starts off easy, a simple favor for Steve Rogers. You like Steve, he’s a nice guy that fixes your appliances on the cheaper side from time to time. He has an easy smile and gets along with everyone that comes to his shop. Sometimes, he even brings you some of Peggy’s apple pies, though those are few and far between now that they have a baby on the way -- it’s been a difficult pregnancy for both of them. One of the main reasons he asks you for that favor in the first place.

“Please, I’ll pay for most of the month,” he explains, sitting from across your dinner table, “Buck’s a good guy, just down on his feet right now.”

“Steve Rogers, I’m not taking a cent from you, especially with Peggy out on maternity leave,” you shut him up as you put your cup down, “It’s been awhile, _a long while_ , but this place could use an extra person or two.”

Your old family home had once been a golden bed-and-breakfast that was a highlight to anyone going through your little town into the city or back from a trip. However, like any thing in a little town that has lost its central livelihood --the car manufacturing plant-- it dried up after a couple of years. You had been lucky enough that your grandfather had paid of the house decades ago, but you didn’t really use it for its original idea anymore and as the only person still really living in this small town from your family -- it was just a big empty house that spoke too loudly some nights.

It was big enough that you wouldn’t really know that another person lived here with you, which was a plus to this whole situation, because as much as you loved the Rogers -- you loved your solitude a bit more than anything else.

“So you wouldn’t mind?” Steve asks once again with wide blue eyes -- ah yes, the puppy dog look.

“No, I don’t mind,” you try your best to smile, it might come out a little crooked it, but Steve doesn’t see to mind.

You accepting Bucky Barnes into your home was just the first of a series of problems the man brought into your quiet life.

* * *

 

Bucky isn’t sure what to think when Steve tells him about the place he managed to have him stay in. An old friend of Peggy’s whose family used to owned an bed-and-breakfast at the edge of town -- large, quiet, and secluded, which were things that he longs for more now than ever and something that Brooklyn couldn’t really provide him anymore. However, Bucky didn’t feel right taking advantage of some old lady’s good nature, so alongside his limited belongings he brought a pie -- an old Winnie Barnes’ recipe for the woman he was going to be spending some time with.

He just didn’t expect the owner of the large home to be around his age and breathtaking as he watched from behind while she greeted Steve and Peggy with a bright, easygoing smile after they‘ve picked him up from the airport. Suddenly, his palms felt all sweaty and he swore his heart jump when their eyes met.

“This is Bucky, your new tenant,” Steve declares with a laugh, as Peggy --already tired from standing up for so long-- hits her husband on the shoulder lightly. The woman just nods in his direction, arms crossed and eyes a bit more distant than before.  

“It’s nice to meet you, Bucky,” she states with soft voice and Bucky thinks he could get used to it welcoming him home from now on.

* * *

**Autumn.**

It’s easy to say that when Bucky Barnes comes into your home, he quickly becomes the talk of the town. It’s annoying listening to the whispers that you know aren’t true --well most of them-- every time you went into town, but you sort of got used to it with time. You just wonder how Bucky was with dealing with all of them, in your short time living together you came to realize that he enjoyed his privacy, along with his solitude, though he made sure to stay on the second floor with you -- just on the other side of the hallway.

_“I heard he’s a former soldier, ya know like Steve.”_

_“A motorcycle. I didn’t think she was so easily swayed, probably a man of loose morals.”_

_“Did you hear that they already saw him with Sally and even Natasha from the little boutique. They look like a dangerous couple.”_

You try not to think about them, they bother you more than they should, though you aren’t sure why. However, it is kind of hard to avoid it when the person at the center of all this is standing a few feet away from you, as the once bright afternoon sky slowly begins to give way to dark colors of the evening. He had just come back from said town, though you weren’t sure from where.  

“Those ladies at the grocery store, they sure do like to talk, huh?” Bucky questions with a chuckle, as he walks up the front steps of the house. Black jacket and slicked back hair with those baby blues and you could understand from where all the women were coming from.  

You give him a nod from where you are sitting on the old chair close to the front door. His hands  full of bags from the shopping he had taken to doing so on his instance. He puts the bags down in front of you since you don’t let him into the kitchen to cook dinner. In fact, he was slowly becoming spoiled over the meals --breakfast and dinner-- that you tended to make for the both of you compared to what he ate back in town.

“Welcome to small time gossip, city boy,” you laugh out, while getting up and grabbing the bags. Bucky can’t help but frown just a little, as if something was bothering him. You mirror it and wait.

“Would you be angry?” Bucky suddenly asks, as he opens the door and the two of you had inside, “If I ever brought a lady friend home?”

“What are you fourteen? You’re a grown up and I don't really care, as long as you let me sleep,” you state the facts as you clearly as possible, as his frown just deepens, “Though, I am sure that Sally, or Nat, _hell_ even Dot have a place much closer to town than this place.”

“Duly noted, ma’am,” he states like there is something else he wants to say, but all he does is leave and goes straight to the back of the house where the garage and his motorcycle are -- surely to stay there until dinner time.

* * *

“Wait, wait,” Natasha stops Bucky’s story for a moment, trying to catch all the details from the flustered mess of a man, “You like her? Like a 100% sure.”

“I was just getting to that, Nat,” Bucky tries to explain, as Natasha just laughs.

Unlike most of the woman within the small town that seem to watch Bucky Barnes like a hawk whenever he came in on his motorcycle, Natasha could have cared less and just welcomed him with a nod to her little shop -- he had been looking from some cute accessories to send his nieces back in New York-- during his first weeks living there and their mutual interest in cars and motorcycles cemented  their quick friendship. Yeah, they might have made a beautiful couple, but Nat already had a lovely girlfriend back in the city and well, Bucky was slowly starting to realize that the he was falling for someone else.

“Okay, okay.”

“I was fixing my bike in the garage and usually she doesn’t bother me,” Bucky goes on leading into the memory that had had his heart fluttering for days now, “But, she came in…”

 

 

> _Bucky was used to spending his time alone whenever he was in the house, she spent time with him whenever they ate or sometimes ended up in the living room together, doing separate things -- that was as far as it went. As much as Bucky wanted to push a bit further due to his own curiosity, he knew from experience that people enjoyed their solitary lifestyles -- he surely did._
> 
> _He just didn’t know that she was going to take the first step, as the old music seems to call her as she comes with a plate of food and drinks. Blue eyes widen when he sees her at the entrance of the garage, as he can tell that she is clearly enjoying the music due to her humming and swaying. It takes her a few minutes --until the song ends-- to notice that he has be watching her._
> 
> _“I made too much to eat,” she starts with a little crack in her voice due to her embarrassment, “Thought you might want some.”_
> 
> _“Thanks,” she says as sets the food down of the work bench, ready to leave when he can’t help but ask, “After this, would you like to see? How it works and everything?”_
> 
> _“I would love to,” she glances at the motorcycle with an excited smile because though she had seen it several times from a distance now, it really did look more beautiful up close and she could see how much work and dedication Bucky put into it._
> 
> _She takes a seat on the other side of the work bench as Bucky takes in the soup, sandwich and other small dishes that make up lunch and he knows that she couldn’t have just made “more”, though he keeps that thought to himself. Instead, he talks about his bike and how he got it and what customizations he has had made along the way and she listens attentively to every single detail. After lunch, Bucky shows her how some of the things work, even promises to take her on a ride one of these days. By the end of the little tour, she can’t help up ask:_
> 
> _“Have you ever thought of making this a business?”_
> 
> _“Yeah, dozen of times really,” Bucky admits shyly, “But the money and everything else.”_
> 
> _“You could set up here as a start,” she starts explaining, playing with the oil on her fingers, “This is your house too, Bucky. For as long as you are willing to stay, and maybe it would be nice to make the old home a bit more lively too.”_
> 
> _“I wouldn’t want to impose,” he can’t help but stutter out in surprise at how big this could be for him in the long term._
> 
> _“It’s not if I’m the one suggesting it,” she smiles once last time before leaving the garage, “Just think about it.”_

“A few nice words and you’re head over heels, Barnes?” Nat can’t help but question, concerned over her friend because as hardened as Bucky tried to be in front of people, he was still a softie at heart and Nat knew that people like that got bruised a lot easier in life.

“She’s just everything, Nat,” Bucky can’t help but breathe out thinking about how she was distant but kind as well. Yes, it might be due to him living with her, but he was sure that other times --the soft smiles, how she started to sit in the garage with her book, how she told him about her day-- meant that there was something else.

“I really wanna make this work.”

* * *

**Winter.**

The winter season brings you in closer than ever, as the road makes it harder for Bucky to go into town with his motorcycle. You drove together in your car whenever the need arose and soon you found that Bucky was always a touch away from you and the blanket that you carried around to protect you from the cold weather. The first time you had nearly screamed when you felt the touch of cold fingers on your back and while you tried to give him his own blanket, he flat out refused so you go for your second best option as Christmas rolls around.

“Who are those presents for?” Bucky can’t help but ask as he comes out of his shower --wearing a long Army sleeve and sweatpants-- to see you wrapping boxes into different colored wrapping paper in a room that could be considered the parlor in the earlier days of your home.

“What are you doing, sugar?” he can’t help but ask as he takes a seat in an old beautifully painted chair not that far from you, though he didn’t see the effects that new nickname --the shiver-- has on you, as you try your best to give him a friendly smile.    

“Christmas presents to send out,” you explain as he nods, as you start pointing out to different piles, “Some for old friends and students. These are for Steve, Peggy, and little Janice.”

He watches you with all the attention in the world, as you go on about gift ideas and people you haven’t seen in ages. Bucky knew somethings about you here and there --you were on online professor, you lived in this house alone since your parents had died-- but, this was honestly the most you had talked about when it came to yourself and the people you knew.

“And this--” you stop mid-way as blue eyes give you a curious look. You shake your head only add, “A surprise.”

Bucky’s heart flutters for a moment and he hopes that it might be for him.

* * *

Neither Steve nor Natasha see Bucky until the snow begins to melt in late March, as he begins recruiting for his repair shop in earnest. The item he had gotten from her isn’t really needed as the weather starts to get a bit warmer, but they still see him wear into time from time and thus replacing that black leather jacket they are so used to.

A dark wine colored knitted sweater.

The thing that Bucky doesn’t know, is that she made Steve promise her not to tell him that she made the whole damn thing herself.

* * *

**Spring.**

It’s April when the house starts to get in more noisy, though more in the back than anything else. Bucky had gotten two people to work for him -- Dum Dum and James Morita. You knew Tim better since your fathers had been friends long ago, while you were aware that Morita was a friend of Steve’s that had gone to the same high school, a year or two ahead of you. Both were ex-vets and that’s what you knew Bucky wanted to do the most with the shop -- help others that had been in the some situation as him once.

Though there was a lot more noise and commotion due to people bringing in their cars and motorcycles to get checked by the men, there were also others who just came due to the curiosity that they had when it came to Bucky and his new shop or the old home at the end of town. Outside of your own work, you tried your hardest to always have coffee and beverages or lunch at hand for the three men whenever they took a break. Bucky smiled and seemed proud of his work, which just had you over the moon. However, nobody was ever let inside of the house outside of the little side room that the garage had that was now being used as a waiting room.  

So, you weren’t sure why there is a pretty dark-haired women sitting in your parlor, talking to Bucky like she owns the place. You see him smile from your viewpoint at entrance. She laughs and his voice echo it in a way you had never heard it before. You turn and move towards the back to find Tim standing at the entrance wiping his hands from oil stains. He smiles slightly when he sees you.

“Hey, are you looking Jamie?” Dum Dum can’t help but ask, while looking at your despondent expression that sends him into high alert.

“No, I—Lunch is ready,” you mumble, shaking your head before adding on, “You guys can eat in the kitchen, I don’t feel so well today.”

“Do you need anything?” he can’t help but ask with serious blue eyes, as if he knows. However, you’re a closed book --always have been-- as you ignore if question and head to the end of the hall where the staircase is located.

“Just...just leave me be for the rest of the day,” you stutter out, close to crying, though you aren’t sure why, “I don’t want anyone bothering me. _Please_ , Tim.”

“I gotcha,” Dum Dum nods, as he watches you stumble up the stairs like a sick child.

You don’t see Bucky come back with the smiling gal, though she isn’t as happy as before as she pays for her car and leaves without another word being exchanged. Bucky palms his face in frustration, but the damage had already been done and things couldn’t be taken back.

You realize on the second day what the problem is, and you make yourself a scarce as a ghost within your own home.   

* * *

Bucky hasn’t seen her in a good while since she usually stayed in her room or study. While, Bucky knew the house pretty well, he was sure that she knew it like the back of her hand — knew the nooks and crannies that kept her hidden from him whenever the need be. All that Bucky had as a sign that she was alive would be his morning coffee and meal wrapped in aluminum or placed in tupperware.

It was driving him crazy and it wasn’t until he was having a drink with Steve and the rest of his growing group of friends that he finally let the whole thing out.

Bucky lets out a frustrated sigh before drinking another sip of beer: “I don’t know what I did, but I haven’t seen her in weeks. I just wish I knew what I did wrong.”

“Honestly, Buck, I haven’t ever heard of her acting this way before,” Steve shrugs helplessly as Dum Dum watches his boss drown himself in another beer -- it had been like that since that day and as far as he understood it -- he was the only who seemed to see the obvious.

_Jamie’s longing and her despair._

“She saw you,” Dum Dum coughs out as the rest of their group looks at him with sudden interest, “Talking to Dottie that day in the parlor. I don’t what she saw, but she was upset when I talked to her.”

Steve and the rest of the team groan, as Bucky just sits there shock for a moment. Dot had been trying to grab his attention since he had arrived to town, she started moving into visiting him at the garage and while Bucky entertained the attention for some time (maybe to forget that she didn’t seem to see him in that way), he backed away when she tried to actually kiss him -- that same day in the parlor -- it’s then that Bucky lets out a string of curses.    

“Bucky, you have to talk to her,” Steve adds in as everyone nods.

“That gal might be an odd thing,” Dum Dum adds in, thinking back since he had started working for the man and watching the two of them interact, “But she looks at you like you’re the moon and she’s the stars, Jamie.”

Bucky could only hope that he still had a chance after all this.

* * *

**Summer.**

You get tired of hiding in your own home by early June, so you start going into town more frequently -- going to the library, the cafe and all the other places you hadn’t gone to since your parents had passed away and maybe even before that. You spend time with Peggy and baby Janice, while walking around town until it’s time to head back home. You don’t ever see that woman that Bucky had been with all those months ago, but you do see someone else.

“You look just as lost as I saw him the other day,” you look up from your lunch to see Natasha giving you a stare that would seem scary it it wasn’t for the smile on her face. Truly a beautiful if not intimidating woman, you could see why Bucky would like her.

“You’re thinking something about Bucky and me, right now?” she asks as you look at her with shocked eyes, though she can only shake her head at how disgustingly in love with each other the two of you seem to be, “Well, whatever it might be, I think you’re gonna be wrong about it.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because James Barnes has only been in love with one person since he arrived,” she states with bright green eyes as she sits down across from you, “And I’m here to prove it to you --- all afternoon if I have to.”

Natasha stays true to her word and while you are still not entirely sure of everything she tells you, she makes you promise to talk to Bucky when you get home. It’s the only thing on your mind on the way back -- until you get an urgent email from the head of your department.

* * *

Bucky sees her more actively than ever before the following week. She is gathering papers and books, doubling checking things here and there and in her confusion she greets him once or twice. It isn’t a lot, but it is a start -- if only he would stop being such a coward about the whole speech he has in mind about how he feels towards her. He plans to tell in the morning, while they are alone and having breakfast, but instead he is meet with her standing in the hallway entrance with 3 small bags, like she's leaving and his heart stops.

“Sugar, where are you going?” he asks in a higher tone that usual, while standing there shock in his tank top and sweats. She gives him a timid smile.

“I guess I forgot to tell you I have work at the university this semester. It should only take a couple of weeks,” she explains with an awkward laugh at the end.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Bucky asks desperately, as she fiddles with her keys.

 _I didn’t think you would care,_ that is the way she wants to answer because she still doubts everything that Natasha had told her and she isn’t willing to put her heart on the line first. However, that thought stays silent as she says instead:

“It just came up. A second professor  is needed for now,” she states, trying to calm him down and compromise in some sort of way, “It shouldn’t be that long.”

“Do you need a ride into the city?” is the only thing he really can say, because he just can’t tell her to stay when its for work -- for one of the few things Bucky knows she has a deep passion for, but he still wants more time with her. He doesn’t want to be in a big, empty house alone -- at least, when she was avoiding him, Bucky knew that she was still there, somewhere. This was completely different beast.

“No, I’ll be fine, Bucky,” she stops him and tries to end the awkward conversation with a joke, “Please don’t destroy the house while I am gone.”

Bucky doesn’t laugh and with a whisper of _stay safe,_ she’s out the door and not to be dramatic -- he’s sure that she’s taken a piece of him with her.

* * *

**Autumn.**

You don’t have time to stay in contact with Bucky during your semester in the city, as Dr. Pierce decides to throw everything he can at you while he has you on campus. Multiple classes and committees take up your time and in some way you’re a little bit grateful -- until it’s Thanksgiving break and you _have_ to head back home, on Peggy’s instiance. Thus you prepare to head back and face the music in some way or another, until your tiny car decides to have a nervous breakdown for you and stop in-between your home and the city.

You knew there was only one person you could call. The house phone rang three times before you could hear a sleepy sigh, Bucky must have been napping or had gone to bed early.

“ ‘ello,” he states, as you take a deep breathe.

“Hey Buck,” at the sound of your voice, you can tell his breath quickens with worry as he starts asking you twenty questions.

“I’m fine,” you start off, “But the car broke down in the middle of the road back home.”

“I’ll be there in 10 minutes, just stay in the car,” he stays in a hurry but still in full on mother hen mode, as you sit there in the car, looking at the sky above and wonder what you are going to do when you see him again.

Bucky is there in fifteen minutes in that old black leather jacket and sweatpants and while he tries his hardest not to hug you right then and there, he fails though both of you are secretly grateful. It’s even harder for him to convince you to leave your car behind until morning, since he doesn’t have a tow truck just yet. It’s then when you see that he brought his motorcycle, it’s even harder for him to sell you on that.

“Come on, sugar. Don’t you wanna head home and rest all ready,” it’s those soft words and the promise of home, along with his thumb rubbing circles on the inside of your wrist, that win you over.

You take your smallest bag and put into the basket side of the motorcycle, as Bucky hands you a helmet. You notice that he doesn’t have one for himself and you promise to scold him later for it. After getting all geared up and filling the hum of the large machine, you both drive off nervously into the night, as you close your eyes in a panic and hold to Bucky as tightly as you can, which causes him to laugh.

Between the darkness of the road and the scattered stars, you can’t help but wonder how many other ladies he has driven to and for, how many he has been with since you left though you can hear Nat’s voice hollering in the back of your head. This occupies you the whole way back home, as too soon you’re taking  the helmet off and Bucky is helping you off the bike. You try not to think that this might be the only ride you might ever get.

“So, what did you think?” Bucky can’t help but ask, as if he had been dreaming about doing this with you for a long while now, as you shrug.

“It was all right,” you exclaim as the smile grows on his face like a kid on Christmas Day, “Just a little nerve wracking, alongside thinking about other things.”

“About what?” he can’t help but ask as you turn to move away, as he stands in front of you with the bike at your back, caging you in as Bucky as the question you have been fearing, “ _Why did it matter to you_?”

You know what he is asking and you have to wonder what or who gave you away. You look at him, broad chest with a bedhead that he pushes back for a moment. You want to believe every word he says, but you don’t believe your own when it comes to what you might be feeling. Love and affection had always been strange bedfellows for you and looking at him made all the words you wanted to say clog up in your throat, as if you had lost speech and thought to the idea of love. You pause and stare at the lonely stars above before turning back to look at those bright blue ones and words suddenly lose all meaning and you are unable to speak.

“I--I…”

All words and fancy speeches end right then and there for both of you, as Bucky takes a step closer to you. He grabs your face and runs a thumb over your cheek, as blue eyes plea with you softly -- to say everything you have been meaning to say since you had seen him with Dot, since you realized what you really felt for him. You take a gulp of air that has just a hint of motor oil and the old scented candles that you just have too many of back at home. _Bucky’s home_ and as you come to realize that, he takes the plunge to speak.

“Just say those magical words and I’m yours, sweetheart,”he states sweetly, completely in love and in awe with you being in front of him after such a long time apart, “Please, have some mercy and put me out of my misery ‘cause it’s been hell without ya.”

_Something heavy and dark lodges itself within your throat as you stare at those beautiful baby blues as you realize you could never leave him. It would be this, always, for as long as he would let you be in his life._

“I think I’m in love with you,” is all you manage to say as Bucky pulls you in completely for a kiss that outdoes all those that you have only read out.

Soft but chapped lips followed by a lovesick sigh, promising you that the feeling is mutual -- that this was  a once in a lifetime sort of thing. That you can finally stop running as you fall into each other’s arms.

 The moon have finally caught up to the stars, as they mingled together in the comfortable darkness of their home.  

 

 


End file.
